Radisson is definitely a success story

Bidhya Krishna Shrestha, more popularly known to many as "B.K", is the Managing Director of the Radisson Hotel. Sometimes, it is difficult to penetrate his Buddha-like-silence stance. But then his no-guts, no-glory attitude have come to be respected in the Nepal’s business and tourism sectors. He is also the Managing Director of Himalayan Group of Companies. Shrestha has been involved in the tourism-related businesses for the last thirty years. Recently, he has been the talk of the town with the issuance of a quarter of the shares of the Hotel. He cites the popularity the hotel has earned since it was opened just 18 months ago to good management and backed by a good team. Despite being very busy just ahead of the public issuance of the shares, Shrestha talked to The Independent in his modest office in the hotel. Excerpts:

Q. What is the basic idea behind offering some portion of the shares of the Radisson Hotel to the general public?

A. We have offered shares worth Rs. 125 million for the public so that there will also be public participation. That was the main reason behind going to the public. We had started the Oriental Hotels, which owns the Radisson, about seven years before. This was a private limited company. But it became a public limited company a few years ago. When it is already a public limited company it is better to go to the public and to have public participation.

Q. What has been the response to your shares so far?

A. As far as the public issuance of shares is concerned it is already underwritten by four banks and 17 finance companies. I confident that the issue will receive overwhelming response and support from the public, by almost three to four fold.

Q. Do you think giving some shares to the public, will help in the progress of the hotel?

A. Yes. As we say more friends are better than one friend and more participation from the public and promoters will be better for the promotion of the hotel or any other industry?

Q. How did you get into the hotel business?

A. I have been involved in the tourism business since the last thirty years. This hotel is also a part of that tourism business. So, when we started this hotel, we started with a small vision. But lo! It has now turned into one of the best hotels in town. It has 172 rooms with both big and small conference facilities. It is the only hotel with underground parking. Similarly we have a swimming pool on the roof top.

Q. How will the tie-up with Radisson help promote your hotel?

A. I think to promote tourism, tie-up with international chain is equally important. If we try to promote individually and with limited resources it often results in limited success only. If we want to go for bigger and better promotion we should have international chain of hotels and international airlines to contribute. This Radisson chain has more than 450 properties in 55 countries of the world.

Q. With reputed names like Radisson coming here, do you see a boom of hotel and tourism business in the country?

A. As I said before, international chain of hotels can play an important role in promoting Nepal’s tourism. So, it will definitely help in our tourism promotion. For example after the Visit Nepal in 1998, we have had a significant increase in the number of tourists coming to Nepal and we also have many airlines coming to Nepal.

Q. Being in the tourism industry for almost three decades what problems do you see in developing our tourism so that it becomes capable of competing with other destinations around the world?

A. If you look back at about three decades, we were happy with 30 or 40 thousands tourists. Now, we are nearing half a million mark. But we should not be satisfied with this number because other countries and even some of our neighbouring ones are getting several million tourists. It is also because tourism is one of the very few industries we can develop besides hydropower and a few exportable items. Tourism also has a very big scope here and if we really try we can make it the most important industry of the country. We have many things that other countries do not have, like Mt. Everest, the Himalaya, Lumbini, a rich culture and heritage. All we need is proper planning and proper promotion.

Q. Till now we have been cashing on only what nature had bestowed on us. Should we develop new products so that the tourism industry will get a boost?

A. You can not change the fact that we have the Himalaya, Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha and the culture. These are our assets and the focus of our tourism promotion. But side by side what we have to do is develop and open new tourist destination. Till now the tourism industry is confined to only a few places like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan. The tourism entrepreneurs are also not thinking of going beyond these places. When I was the chairperson of the tourism committee of the FNCCI, I had asked all the district chamber of commerce to send about the possibility of promoting their districts as tourism destination, and the response was very encouraging. Almost 70 districts had some possibility of developing tourism industry. It shows there are many other places which can be developed as tourist destinations and also the people there are also interested to promote tourism industry in their districts. For that we have to develop infrastructure in those places. It is mainly the job of the government. Meanwhile, while we already have the ground infrastructure to handle a million tourists, the stumbling blocks have been bringing them here. This is because of inaccessibility by air and lack of marketing.

Q. Talking about your hotel, Radisson Hotel has made a very good name for itself. But sometimes there are reports that the success of Radisson is more exaggerated thing than a real one. Your comment?

A. People have a right to their opinion. But the fact is that we are just 18 months old and we are already making operating profit. If we were doing badly it would not have been possible. Talking about Radisson, we have a very good management, good location and good property. With this we are quite successful. Today Radisson is definitely a success story here.

Q. It is often said it takes several years or even decades for big industries and hotels to go into profit, but your hotel made an operating profit in only 18 months. What is the secret of your success?

A. Again, you have to have good management, good partners and good teamwork. When we say teamwork, every department has to do its part efficiently and we have a very good teamwork in our hotel.

Q. Hotel business in Nepal mainly depends on tourism and the tourism is mostly seasonal one with several months of lean period. What plans do you have to make hotel business sustainable throughout the year?

A. There are mainly two parts in hotel business. One is the room division and the other if F&B (Food and Beverage). Under the room division we have 172 rooms and our occupancy rate is quite good. This part is totally dependent on the tourists. The other part, the food and beverage, is not totally dependent on outside tourists. About 70 to 75 per cent of the F&B part depend on the local market. For instance, we have two restaurants, one international bar and one of the biggest banquet halls in Kathmandu. We also have several other conference halls of different sizes. With all these our F&B part is also strong.

Q. Talking about a social issue. The garbage problem is one of the most pressing problems Kathmandu is facing. It is also said to be hampering the tourism industry but we are always blaming the government only for failing to deal with this problem. Do you think the tourism sector should also come forward to help deal with this problem?

A. Definitely. But if you look at it, there was no garbage problem until some years back. I think the problem has still not gone out of hand. The problem has aggravated mainly because there have been changes of the government and the governments did not take it in a concerted way. If we all are focussed and united it can be solved very easily. This garbage problem is confined within a radius of a few kilometres, about six or seven kilometres only. So, it should not be a big problem to manage it. For example, there are 32 Wards in the Kathmandu city and transferring garbage from one end of the city to the other can be difficult. So, my suggestion is, if the city can be divided into several sectors with several wards under it and each sector has its own garbage disposal place it can be managed easily. This also makes it easily controllable and importantly the sectors can generate funds for the disposal of garbage produced by themselves.